:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68772615/949582810.0.jpg)
Late Thursday evening saw some depressing news for Avalanche fans: all games, practices, and team activities have been shut down for at least a week while the team deals with the coronavirus ravaging through the team.
Schedule Update: @Avalanche games postponed through February 11. https://t.co/o42HHY0569 pic.twitter.com/5YfU4QP8Ky
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) February 5, 2021
The unfortunate news comes after playing the last three games against the Minnesota Wild, who have had their own coronavirus problems. After they were missing five players to the COVID Protocol list, the NHL started with cancelling Thursday’s fourth and final game between the squads.
The NHL then postponed all of the Wild’s games for the next week, and added Tyson Jost and Gabriel Landeskog to the COVID Protocol List earlier Thursday, along with the Wild’s Nico Sturm.
New additions to NHL COVID list:@BuffaloSabres Jake McCabe@Avalanche Gabriel Landeskog@mnwild Nico Sturm
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) February 4, 2021
Devils still have 16 players in the list, as Aaron Dell has finished his travel quarantine and is off the list.
The Avalanche now join the Wild in all activities being postponed for the next week. It is another road bump in the search for the Stanley Cup for the Avs.
The Avalanche become the sixth team in the Honda West Division to have games postponed because of the spread of the virus through the squads. The Vegas Golden Knights and Minnesota Wild have had the two most prominent outbreaks in their squad in the West, affecting these three, the San Jose Sharks, St. Louis Blues and Arizona Coyotes.
The Avalanche will miss out on a road trip to face the St. Louis Blues this weekend, and a two-game home stand against the Arizona Coyotes next week. If things get better within the week, the first game back for the Avalanche will be in Las Vegas to face the Golden Knights on February 14th at 5:00 PM MT.
It was only a matter of time before some Avalanche games would have to be postponed, whether it was from other teams’ problems, or a problem with the virus in the Avalanche squad. While it is unfortunate news for Avs fans to swallow, it should have been expected at some point or another.
The only silver lining to these cancellations is the time to rest up and heal. The Avalanche were already dealing with several injuries to key guys like Nathan MacKinnon, Devon Toews, and many many more. This week should hopefully help them heal further and closer to a return when it is safe for the Avs to hit the once again.
We will keep things updated as more news becomes available, including when the postponed games will be rescheduled for. The Avs will be back.
In the meantime, stay safe, wear a mask, and wash your hands everyone.